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400 000 Visited Bulgaria's Balchik Palace in 2010, More to Come in 2011

The "
Palace"
complex in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Balchik had 400 000 visitors in 2010, both Bulgarian and foreign tourists, according to its management.

Balchik's Palace – or "
Dvoretsa"
(also "
Dvoreca"
) in Bulgarian – is a complex built in 1924 by Queen Maria of Romania at a time when the region of Southern Dobrudzha was part of Romania (1918-1940).

It was subsequently integrated with the Balchik Botanical Garden to create one of the most famous tourism sites along Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bulgaria's Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski "
won back"
its right to manage the Balchik Botanica Garden after a year-long dispute with the Culture Ministry.

The Balchik Botanical Garden was established in 1940. It has an area of 65,000 m² and accommodates 2000 plant species belonging to 85 families and 200 genera. In May 2010, a government decision was made to transfer the Garden's management to the Culture Ministry, which caused a fierce inter-institutional battle.

A record number of tourists visited the Balchik Palace complex in August 2010, its director Toshko Gyaurov announced in the north-eastern city of Dobrich Wednesday as cited by BGNES;
their number was 40% of all visitors in 2010.

Gyaurov voiced expectations that every month in the summer of 2011 will be just as successful for the Balchik complex as was August 2010. He said the complex registered revenues of BGN 2.5 M in 2010.

Its management will invest BGN 200 000 in maintenance and infrastructure of Dvoretsa and the adjacent beach right before the 2011 summer tourist season kicks off. BGN 4 M have been invested for the same purposes over the past 5 years.